Biographical sketch

Gérard Lefebvre was born at Valleyfield, Quebec, on June 16, 1920. From 1933 to 1938, he was educated at the classical college of the Clerics of St. Viator at Berthierville. Responding to the call of the religious and teaching life, he entered the Novitiate of the Clerics of St. Viator at Joliette. After a year of novitiate, he attended the Normal School at Rigaud where he obtained his teacher’s degree. In September 1940, he commenced teaching at the Saint- Viateur School at Lachute. In 1945, he went to teach at the Commercial College St-Andre at St-Césaire.

Having left the religious order, he married Reine-Claire Poirier on August 2, 1947. They had 5 children. In 1948, he left the teaching profession to become a journalist for a daily newspaper in Granby, La Voix de l’Est. He was appointed at the Cowansville office. Very active in the life of his new community, he became a member of the Knights of Columbus, being Grand Knight from 1952 to 1954, and of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, being its president in 1955-1956. Through his implication in the community and his work for the newspaper, Mr. Lefebvre was the witness of most of the events and social life that took place in Cowansville in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

In 1964, he was transferred to the Granby office where he became the circulation manager. In 1971, he left the paper for a position with the Quebec Government at the Ministry of Family, where he retired in 1984. Mr. Lefebvre died on February 24, 1997.

Immediate source of acquisition

On June 21, 2003, Daniel Lefebvre, son of Gérard Lefebvre, and Reine-Claire Poirier Lefebvre, widow of the late Gérard Lefebvre, donated to the Cowansville Historical Society, Mr. Lefebvre's archives. These archives include correspondance, scrapbooks and photographs used by Mr. Lefebvre in his work as a journalist for the newspaper La Voix de l'Est.

Scope and content

The Gérard Lefebvre fonds relates the career of Mr. Lefebvre as a journalist in Cowansville for La Voix de l’Est, and is an important source of information on the political, social, cultural, economic and sport life in Cowansville in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The fonds is composed of photographs that were published in the daily newspaper of Granby during that period. It also includes 12 scrapbooks which contain newspaper articles published from 1955 to 1964. Finally, the fonds includes a honorary plaque and some correspondence of Mr. Lefebvre.

Source of title: Title of the fonds is based on the provenance.

Physical condition: Some documents are fragile, while others are in good condition.

Language of documents: Documents are mostly in French, but a few are in English.

Finding aids: Series descriptions and file lists are available.